title: Binary classification of chalcone derivatives with LDA or KNN based on their antileishmanial activity and molecular descriptors selected using the Successive Projections Algorithm feature-selection technique.
abstract: Chalcones are naturally occurring aromatic ketones, which consist of an α-, β-unsaturated carbonyl system joining two aryl rings. These compounds are reported to exhibit several pharmacological activities, including antiparasitic, antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, immunomodulatory, nitric oxide inhibition and anti-inflammatory effects. In the present work, a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) study is carried out to classify chalcone derivatives with respect to their antileishmanial activity (active/inactive) on the basis of molecular descriptors. For this purpose, two techniques to select descriptors are employed, the Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA) and the Genetic Algorithm (GA). The selected descriptors are initially employed to build Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) models. An additional investigation is then carried out to determine whether the results can be improved by using a non-parametric classification technique (One Nearest Neighbour, 1NN). In a case study involving 100 chalcone derivatives, the 1NN models were found to provide better rates of correct classification than LDA, both in the training and test sets. The best result was achieved by a SPA-1NN model with six molecular descriptors, which provided correct classification rates of 97% and 84% for the training and test sets, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - KULeuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. Electronic address: mohammad.godarzi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goodarzi
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Saeys
authors.forename: Mario Cesar Ugulino
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: de Araujo
authors.forename: Roberto Kawakami Harrop
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Galvão
authors.forename: Yvan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vander Heyden
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002599:Chalcone / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D008958:Models, Molecular; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D002599:Chalcone
keywords: Antileishmanial activity; Genetic Algorithm; Linear Discriminant Analysis; One Nearest Neighbour; Successive Projections Algorithm